De-bandoned

There's something kind of soothing about having no audience -- this goes out into the ether and no one cares what I have to write.
Since my last post I've been: laid off from the back room, hired at a not-architecture firm, laid off from the not-architecture firm, and hired at the job that I've wanted for aaaaaaages.

This new place is a lady-firm. The two principles have been best girlfriends forever: they go away together for weekends, their kids are the same age and they call each other multiple times a day before they even show up at work. They are heterosexual life partners, and it's kind of awesome to see. There are three juniors in the office -- Tasmania, who has lots of experience with construction, and Token, who is our single guy employee. We make him answer the phone. It's wrong but awesome, because architecture is still a male dominated profession and all the girls at the office have had problems with jerk bosses, consultants or clients thinking we are less able because we have boobs.

Things are tough for architects right now, and I was very, very lucky to get both this job and the not-architecture job. The best thing about this place is that it's small enough that I can do almost everything in the office. I write design development reports, create schedules and am going to be working on construction drawings in addition to the pretty renders and 3-D models that I've done in the past. I've started to study for my Architecture Registration Exams (there are 7), and my bosses are super supportive.

The big down side to life right now is that I'm single... and it's not something that I have any skills for. I've developed an inappropriate crush on a friend of a friend (who has a girlfriend), and while I realize it's mostly because I like the drama, I worry that I'm not really equipped to have a decent relationship with a single guy who is not surly or hairy. Everyone is messed up about dating and I'm no exception.